Don Rich

All you want to know about Don Rich

Don Rich
Birth name Donald Eugene Ulrich
Born August 15, 1941(1941-08-15)
Olympia, Washington, US
Died July 17, 1974 (aged 32)
California
Genre(s) Country
Occupation(s) Musician
Instrument(s) Guitar
Years active 1959 - 1974
Associated acts Buck Owens
Notable instrument(s)
Fender Telecaster

Donald Eugene Ulrich, best known by the stage name Don Rich (August 15, 1941-July 17, 1974) was a country music guitarist who helped develop the Bakersfield sound in the early 1960s.

Contents

Biography

Donald Eugene Ulrich was born in Olympia, WA on August 15, 1941. His parents had him taking violin lessons beginning in grade school. By his teen years he had become a formidable fiddler.[citation needed] In 1958, Buck Owens relocated to Puyallup, WA. He was recording for Capitol Records at the time, but had yet to find a hit. He played around the area and became part-owner of tiny KAYE Radio and hosted a local TV show.

Rich was a freshman at nearby Centralia College when he was introduced to Owens in 1959. He joined Owens' band and stayed with him until June of 1960 when Owens divested his Washington business interests and returned to Bakersfield. Soon after returning, he got a letter from Rich, who was tired of college and ready for a musical career. Owens brought him south and hired him for $75 a week. Rich returned home, married his girlfriend Marlene and the couple settled in Bakersfield. Rich's first appearance on an Owens single was the 1960 hit "Excuse Me (I Think I've Got A Heartache)".

The pair toured the country playing clubs with whatever house band they found. Rich quickly found he preferred Telecaster picking to playing the fiddle. He quickly mastered Owens' snappy, aggressive guitar style and began to develop his own style from it.[citation needed] Owens was happy to let Rich take over the lead guitar. It allowed him to focus on his singing, and Rich's vocal harmonies (always singing the high third) also became an integral part of Owens' onstage sound.

Offstage, he became Owens' musical collaborator. Rich suggested, as they listened to a demo of songs by lyricist Voni Morrison, that Owens check the last song, one Morrison thought Owens wouldn't like.[citation needed] The song, "Act Naturally", became Owens' first #1 single in 1963.

When Owens formed The Buckaroos, Rich was the band leader. Rich contributed many solos to Owens' records. Highlights included "Gonna Have Love", "Tiger By The Tail" and an interlude on Owens' 1969 revival of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" that Owens called "the greatest live chorus on guitar I ever heard."

Rich's guitar tone was clean and concise and, as a musician, he did not confine his listening to country music alone. Rich enjoyed jazz guitar, he was particularly devoted to the playing of jazzman Howard Roberts. Rich also had an appreciation for pop music styles like The Beatles. Rich was open to new ideas. He created the percussive licks on "The Kansas City Song" by fingering chords as Buckaroos drummer Jerry Wiggins tapped the strings with his sticks.

After Hee Haw's 1969 premiere, with Owens and Roy Clark co-hosting, the Buckaroos became the show's house band, giving Rich even wider exposure. Owens felt Rich could take his talents wherever he chose. "Different people at different times through the years wanted to do something with Don, wanted to hire Don for their band, wanted to record Don. But I recorded Don whenever he wanted."[citation needed]

Death

On July 16, 1974, after finishing work at Owens' Bakersfield studio, Rich was killed in a motorcycle accident.

References

  • Bacon, Tony (2005). Six Decades of the Fender Telecaster: The story of the world's first solidbody electric guitar, Backbeat Books. ISBN 0-87930-856-7. 

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Rich"

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